Notice Period – 3 mths… You must be kidding!!!!

Well, I am not kidding 🙂 This is a common practice now a days. Gone are the days when a candidate could switch jobs easily. Things have changed drastically. Most of the companies have changed their policy regarding Notice Period.

The question is How will it impact employees?.. How will it impact the employers?

Just to give you a background about the meaning of “Notice Period”- A notice period is the amount of time an employee has to give to his employer from the time he decides to quit.How will it impact employees?

The recession is over (Thank God), Market has opened up, There are lots of openings available, lots of new jobs, Projects etc 🙂 SO!! So, Employees are looking for a change…. Not all, but there is a good size of people looking for a job change.

The average Notice period is 30 – 90days. It might be different for professionals on contract. So, if you are an employee who is looking for a change, and your company has a NP of 60 or 90 days… will it be easy for you to shift.. or do you think the prospective employer will wait for you!!!!!

The answer will be Yes (at times) or NO (Most of the times). The employees might have a tuff time to come out, as companies are asking for them to serve the entire NP. (Buyout options too are very rare) Well… all that I can say as of now is… ALL THE BEST… But… there might be a stage when Employers will wait for 60 – 90 days.. as they might also run out of options in terms of the availability of the resources.

How will it impact the employers?

HMMMMMM Projects, Billable Projects, Clients, Resignations (Retention) … Employers are always hunting for resources to work for their projects. Lots of openings have been available in the job market. As an employer it’s very important to fulfill the positions, and start the billing for the resources placed.

But on the other hand, they are facing difficulties as they cannot afford to wait for 60 – 90 days (for some critical skills). Also even if they wait, there are times when the employees have 2-3 offers in hand by that time.

People do wait for 3-4 months for a new car…. 🙂 So does it mean that there will be a time when this will be a common practice for Employers to wait for the same!!!!!!! 🙂

The employers have found a way where they can retain / atleast ensure that less resources resign, by increasing the Notice Period…. But does this really help???? YES … MAY BE NO….. DEPENDS……..

There are employment laws with relation to employees working on Contract (15 – 20days). Also those who are permanent employees, do have a clause mentioned in their offer letter, that the terms and conditions of employment can be changed as per the need of the company.

Great post Kunjal!!!
Longer notice periods have become a matter of great concern amongst the employees and prospective employers as well.
As Sarang has precisely pointed out, the longer notice period’s can be well justified when it comes to critical resources being deployed in significant projects.
However increasing the notice period is certainly not a very good way of retaining the employees, or curbing attrition. There can be far better ways of doing that 
Like the employers fear back outs, after offering candidates with 3 months of notice period, the employees too fear if there would be an employer of their choice who would like to afford waiting for a whooping 90 days till the employee serves his entire notice period. Employers seem to face larger risks though…
Its again a matter of choice both the employers & candidates would be willing to make!!
Its easier for the candidates to find & apply with the organizations who can deal with their longer notice periods, but its pretty difficult for an employer to judge whether a candidate with such a longer notice period is genuine enough to wait for. Thus leading the employers to take a call on whether they can compromise a little in terms of the quality of the resource by being confident about his joining or by taking a risk by waiting for a technically much sounder employee who gets a lot of time to shop around in the meanwhile 😉
Candidates who are more keen on the quality of work they get to do rather than simply opting for higher packages without being concerned about the work being offered along with it are not extinct just as yet!!!

We all hear about one side stories of employees who cribs about their company, compensation etc. However, we tend to forget other side of this story. Employers invest lot of time, money and effort into employees to make them billable and award them that experience which they can design their CV upon to win new roles. The key resources carry lot of value and weight-age for large projects and ultimately business! This 3 months time provides a flexibility for employer to do proper transition of knowledge and projects internally. At the end – show must go on!!!

If people can wait long time for their flats, cars OR even to get married – why can’t they wait to shift their jobs. Your career is suppose to be top-line priority for any person along with food, shelter right?

Additionally – even companies needs to plan their new upcoming projects in such a way that they have enough time to slot properly inducted trained resources which will ensure a success for their project. This gives them a proper time to even select 3 months notice resource. At the end – recruiters end up chasing 2/3 weeks notice resources which might not be as quality as others.

That’s a valid point Sarang.
But i would like to differ a bit on the same. Companies do invest time and money, but in return of the employees who work, who earn money for them. So its win win for both the parties. One cannot just say that because we invest money in employees, we can change the policy any time as per our wish.